These documents provided the legal framework for a fund set up by Aristomenes and Psylla to pay for performers at the local Dionysia games. They clearly reckoned that 180 minas were needed to generate enough interest for this purpose, but the total of their donation was 120 minas. So the city probably had to wait for a couple of years until there was enough money in the fund; the interest rate specified in the decree was equivalent to 24% per year.
For some comments on this inscription, see K. Harter-Uibopuu, "Money for the Polis", pp.131-134 ( academia.edu ). There is a French translation of the inscription in R. Dareste et al., "Recueil des inscriptions juridiques grecques" no. 25.B ( archive.org ); and a German translation by K. Hallof ( IG IX 1², 4 ).
[A] For safety. When Aristomenes was prytanis, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of Machaneus; Aristomenes Hylleus, son of Aristolaïdas, is giving to the city of Corcyra, to hire the artists for Dionysos, sixty minas of Corinthian silver; and Psylla Hyllis, daughter of Alkimos, is giving to the city of Corcyra, to hire the artists for Dionysos, sixty minas of Corinthian silver. The council shall choose each year three men, amongst the most powerful in wealth, to loan out the money for that year; 10 the loaning and recovery of the money, and any other management of it, shall be performed in whatever way seems best to the council. When the sum with its interest has become one hundred and eighty minas, and the one hundred and eighty minas have been be loaned out, after a year has passed since the one hundred and eighty minas were loaned out, the city shall engage the artists in accordance with the law of the agonothete, unless it is impossible because of war and the council and the assembly have postponed the Dionysia . The city shall hold the games, spending fifty Corinthian minas from the interest of the three talents, 20 hiring three flute players, three tragic actors and three comic actors; and the magistrates in office on each occasion shall do everything else as the law of the agonothete stipulates. The statutory provision-money shall be given to the artists out of the interest, separately from the fifty minas. If anything should be impossible because of war, and the city does not send for the artists or the artists do not come, or if someone quits the games, all the remaining money shall be loaned out and the interest arising from it shall be used to hire the artists; and if it is possible to hold the games 30 and no-one is preventing it, but the city does not send for the artists in each period of the games, or if when the contractors have come it does not pay the artists or does not give them the prescribed payment or does not give them the statutory provision-money, or if it uses the money for some other purpose and not for hiring the artists, then all the money that has been given shall belong to Aristomenes and Psylla, or to the heirs of Aristomenes and Psylla.
Witnesses: Molotas son of Glaukos, Sosandros son of Theodoros and Promachidas son of Myrtilos.
[B] After Aristomenes son of Aristolaïdas and Psylla daughter of Alkimos approached them 40 about the money which they have given to the city and to Dionysos for hiring the artists - sixty Corinthian minas each - it was resolved by the council that the money given by Aristomenes and Psylla shall be loaned out by the appointed men; and the council shall appoint three men, amongst the most powerful in wealth, to handle the money for a year, and the same men may be appointed many times, with a gap of two years; they shall be not younger than thirty-five years, and not older than seventy years; they shall be chosen each year in the month of Machaneus in a council meeting or in an assembly; those who are chosen in the year of Aristomenes shall take the money from Aristomenes and Psylla 50 and shall loan it out in the twelfth month, that is Eukleios, in the year of Aristomenes, announcing it beforehand for not less than five days in the (?) announcement place, and conducting the business in (?) the place by the chariots, loaning out the money for no more and no less interest than two drachmas per month for each mina; they shall draw up the contract as they choose, specifying that the borrower shall pay back the capital and the interest in the month of Eukleios in the year after Aristomenes was prytanis. The appointed men shall exact payment of the capital and the interest in the month of Eukleios in the year after Aristomenes; and they shall hand it over to the men who have been appointed 60 for the handling of the money in the following year. These men, upon receiving the money, shall deal with all the money in the month of Artemitios in their term of office, having announced it beforehand in (?) the place by the chariots; and they shall do everything else as has been prescribed for the men appointed in the year of Aristomenes; and the men appointed for each following year shall do the same. If the men appointed for the handling of the money fail to do something that has been prescribed although they should have been able to do so, they shall pay a fine of thirty minas of Corinthian silver, 70 and they shall hand over the capital that they received; if they do not do this, they shall pay a fine of twice the amount of the capital; the council and the assembly shall decide about what is impossible. If the appointed men loan out the money but do not recover the capial and the interest, or do not hand it over to the next men who are appointed, as is prescribed, they shall pay a fine of double the capital and the interest - whichever of them they do not hand over.
Whenever the sum with its interest has become one hundred and eighty minas, and the hundred and eighty minas have been loaned out, after a year has passed since the hundred and eighty minas were loaned out, 80 the magistrates shall engage the artists in accordance with the law of the agonothete, and the other magistrates in office on each occasion shall do everything else as is prescribed in the donation document, unless something occurs because of war, and therefore the council and the assembly postpone the games. They shall hire the artists in every other year since when the games began, out of the interest from the three talents, spending fifty minas to pay for three flute players, three tragic actors and three comic actors, and everything else in accordance with the law of the agonothete. They shall also give the statutory provision-money to the artists out of the interest, separately from the fifty minas; and the men who are managing the money at whatever time the artists are present, 90 whenever they have recovered the money, shall hand over to the agonothete fifty minas as payment for the artists and the provision-money that is required, before the sixth day of the month of Artemitios, and they shall hand over the remainder of the money to the men who are appointed to succeed them; and the agonothete who receives the money shall do everything in accordance with the law, and he shall give an account of his actions to the council in the first available meeting, as to how much he received and how he managed each of his duties. The men appointed to manage the money shall also give an account of their actions each year in the month of Artemitios, both those who received the money and those who handed it over, as to how they received and handed over each item. 100 If the men appointed to manage the money or the magistrates fail to do something that is prescribed, the guilty man shall pay a fine of thirty minas of Corinthian silver and double whatever loss he caused. If either the agonothete or the men appointed to manage the money do not give a correct account of their actions, the nomophylakes shall scrutinise it as they do for the other sacred and public moneys.
No-one shall be permitted to bring forward a proposal concerning the money dedicated by Aristomenes and Psylla, that it should be used for any other purpose apart from hiring the artists; it can be used for no other purpose, in no way by any device. If anyone brings forward a proposal or appropriates the money for some other purpose, 110 the person who makes the proposal or misappropriation shall pay to Aristomenes and Psylla, or to the heirs of Aristomenes and Psylla, a penalty of sixty minas of Corinthian silver, and double the amount of money that he misappropriated. The public advocates {prodikoi}of the council shall submit a charge without deposit against all these things, and against anything else that they think appropriate, and they shall record the amount of money prescribed for each misdemeanour; they shall pass the case to the president of the standing committee {probouloi}, who will bring it to the law courts, to be tried within thirty days; and it shall be possible for anyone else who wishes to make a charge on the same conditions. If the accused is convicted, whoever made the charge 120 shall exact from him the money that accrues to the state, and shall hand it over the men appointed for the handling of the money; and these men shall loan it out in the same way as is prescribed for the other money; Aristomenes and Psylla or their heirs shall exact payment of any penalties that are due to them, and each of them shall bring a charge as they choose. If any of the heirs of Aristomenes and Psylla brings forward a motion to use the money for any other purpose, or misappropriates it for anything else, the penalties and the money shall not belong to Aristomenes and Psylla or to the heirs of Aristomenes and Psylla, but shall be public money for hiring the artists, 130 and they shall be loaned out with the other money, in the manner stated above. If anything becomes impossible because of war, and the city does not send for the artists or the artists do not come, the fifty minas and the provision-money shall be loaned out again, until the time when it is possible. Similarly, if any of the artists quits the games, the remaining money shall be loaned out and shall be available for the hiring the artists. If any revision is made to the laws, the revisers shall give instructions in the laws on how the money should be managed. Everything else shall be done as seems best to the council and the assembly. 140 Nothing shall be done that is contrary to this decree or the donation.
A copy of the donation and the decree shall be inscribed on a stone stele and set up wherever seems best to the standing committee and the public advocates. The standing committee shall take care of the inscribing and setting up of the stele, along with the administrator {dioikētēs} and the architect; the treasurer shall give money for the cost of the inscription.
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